Details
Movie Description
Giving an art-film aesthetic to a touching family drama, director Phil Morrison and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan present their first feature, which was shot in their hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The film is set in nearby Pfafftown and Pilot Mountain, and location is itself a character in the film as long sequences of soundless photography show rows of houses, or rooms in a house, or stretches of farmland--capturing the essence of this area of the South.
Successful, cosmopolitan, and adorable Chicago couple Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) and George (Alessandro Nivola) meet at a fancy art auction where she is working as a dealer, and they are married six months later. Madeleine is recruiting an outsider artist, and she travels to rural North Carolina to meet him. George accompanies her, as he is originally from Pfafftown, and though it has been three years since he visited home, Madeleine insists on meeting his family. When she does, she finds herself in a world totally different from her own, and sees a new side of her husband. His mother Peg (Celia Weston) and father Eugene (Scott Wilson) are quiet homebodies who aren't sure what to make of Madeleine's sophisticated career and lilting British accent. George's deadbeat brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) never finished high school, and lives at home with his young wife Ashley (Amy Adams), who is naive and bubbly--and very pregnant. While the family's simplicity, traditional values, and religion make them suspicious of Madeleine, Ashley is the one bright-eyed spirit who is happy to have Madeleine as a sister-in-law and celebrates her marriage to George. JUNEBUG is an effecting film that sheds light both on the always-surprising nature of in-laws, and the unique culture of the South.
Industry Reviews
"[Amy Adams gives] a performance as deep as it is delightful. She's the film's heart and also its flaky wonderstruck soul."
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman (08/12/2005)
"Embeth Davidtz is engaging...and Amy Adams is a revelation..."
Movieline's Hollywood Life - Stephen Farber (07/01/2005)
"There is a gentle, contemplative quality to this film...which explores the bonds and tensions within this Southern family in an honest way. Davidtz is luminous and Nivola does a fine job as George….JUNEBUG has the feel of a good short story or novella."
USA Today - Claudia Puig (08/12/2005)
Included in Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten Films Of The Year -- "At last, a comedy of family dysfunction that's soulful and moonstruck instead of glib and reductive."
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman (12/30/2005)
"[A] slow-burning, acutely observed comedy of manners....Morrison's emphasis is firmly on character and dialogue..."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (03/01/2006)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he cast relish the dialogue's sure ring of authenticity..."
Uncut - Leslie Felperin (04/01/2006)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] fridge-humming study of domestic banality, sibling rivalry and intellectual mistrust..."
Total Film - Stuart McGurk (09/01/2006)
3 stars out of 5 -- "[Adams] is the film's real point of interest, incorporating both humour and pathos into the role of a put-upon young mother."
Ultimate DVD - Natalie Braine (09/01/2006)
"Amy Adams didn't get star billing in this small, superb film....Yet there was no way to miss the startling fire and special grace that she brought to the role..."
Wall Street Journal (03/13/2009)
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